TOPSHOTS, AFP’S SELECTION OF THE BEST PHOTOS TRANSMITTED. AFP’S TOPSHOTS, A NEW WAY OF RECEIVING AFP’S BEST PHOTOS, UPDATED EVERY 8 HOURS. SEARCH ‘TOPSHOTS’ FOR A DEFINITIVE SELECTION OF AFP’S WORLD WIDE PRODUCTION FROM BREAKING NEWS TO BREATHTAKING PICTURES. AFP PHOTO
Esta es una edición de las mejores fotos de la agencia francesa Afp que han llegado en los últimos diez días. Pero no me ha costado mucho encontrarlas. Los editores de la agencia se encargan de seleccionar esta preciosas gemas fotográficas y enviarlas cada ocho horas a los abonados con la etiqueta de Top Shots. Muchas de estas fotos tratan temas poco noticiosos y se puede pensar que es fácil conseguir una imagen bella en estas informaciones más tranquilas. Pero no es cierto. Ademas, muchas de estas imágenes tratan temas de gran tensión informativa con grandes alardes estéticos.
Es de agradecer este tipo de servicio en una agencia de información gráfica. Por esto y otras razones que cuento en un post que dediqué a esta agencia, France Press es mi favorita. Espero que os gusten esta selección de lo mejor de los top shots de los últimos 10 días… un ejemplo de buen fotoperiodismo.
Armed Thai soldiers stand guard on Silom Road in the financial district of central Bangkok on April 20, 2010. Thailand toughened its stance against anti-government protesters, warning security forces would use live ammunition and tear gas in any fresh clashes. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / Nicolas ASFOURI
Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (R) jumps for the ball against Inter Milan’s Serbian midfielder Dejan Stankovic (Hidden) during the UEFA Champions League first leg semifinal Inter Milan vs Barcelona football match on April 20, 2010 at San Siro stadium in Milan. Milan won 3-1. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO
(R-L) Sarah Jablonski, Jo Hayashi, Nikita Lev and Jovita McIver wait during auditions for 5 and 6 year-olds for the School of American Ballet (SAB) at Lincoln Center in New York April 19, 2010. The School of American Ballet, established in 1934 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, is the premier ballet academy in the United States. TOPSHOTS AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY
TOPSHOTS Afghanistan Uniform Police rise for the national anthem at their graduation ceremony held at a US Marine base in the desert in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on April 18, 2010. Two months after US Marines led what was billed the biggest offensive against the Taliban in more than eight years of war, several bombs are still exploding daily in Helmand province and troops still come under fire from insurgents. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio LIMA
TOPSHOTS Thomas Laybourn throws his racket after a lost point whilst playing with Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark against Nadiezda Kostiuczyk and Robert Mateusiak of Poland during their final mixed doubles match during the European Badminton Championships in Manchester, north-west England on April 18, 2010. AFP PHOTO/BEN STANSALL
TOPSHOTS A woman wearing a raincoat stands in front of the UK pavilion during a rain shower at the site of the World expo 2010 in Shanghai on April 14, 2010. Up to 100 million people are expected to flock to the massive six-month event from May 1, nearly all of them Chinese. AFP PHOTO/PHILIPPE LOPEZ
PLA soldiers stand guard at a metro station as visitors arrive at the site of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai on April 20, 2010. Shanghai’s Expo organisers gave members of the public a preview of the largest-ever World’s Fair as they tested facilities and public transportation ten days before the official start. Up to 100 million people are expected to flock to the massive six-month event from May 1, nearly all of them Chinese. TOPSHOTS AFP PHOTO/PHILIPPE LOPEZ
A Colombian Army parachutist traces figures in the air with colored smoke during an exhibition at 2010 Expodefensa fair in Cali, Colombia on April 18, 2010. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / Luis ROBAYO
A dwarf and a dancer wait to perform at Mango’s bar on April 16, 2010 in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / Raul ARBOLEDA
Astana´s team cyclist Alberto Contador is pictured after winning the XXV Vuelta of Castilla-Leon last stage from Samos to Santiago de Compostela, on April 18, 2010. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL RIOPA
TOPSHOTS Philippe Gnannt, ball-trick expert, demonstrates his skills during the presentation of the “Jobulani” football to be used in the final match of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa this summer, at Adidas’ headquarters in the southern German city of Herzogenaurach on April 20, 2010. AFP PHOTO DDP / JOERG KOCH GERMANY OUT
TOPSHOTS Staff members of the Orsay museum prepare to pack “L’Angelus” (1858) a painting by French Jean-Francois Millet on April 19, 2010 in Paris. The painting will be shown in May as part of the World expo 2010 in Shanghai. AFP PHOTO FRANCOIS GUILLOT
TOPSHOTS Gallery employee Phillip Baumann looks through an untitled sculpture by German artist Heinz Mack during a press preview of the “Art Cologne” art fair on April 20, 2010 in Cologne, western Germany. The 44th “Art Cologne” taking place from April 21 to 25, 2010 will showcase 180 modern, post-war and contemporary galleries. AFP PHOTO DDP/HENNING KAISER GERMANY OUT
TOPSHOTS A taxi driver gestures outside the Greek parliament during a 48hours strike in Athens on April 14, 2010. Greece suffered a new setback on Wednesday when its borrowing rate shot up again to above 7.0 percent, just as taxi drivers and lawyers began a new series of strikes against huge budget cuts. AFP PHOTO / Aris Messinis
TOPSHOTS A departure board at Athens international airport is pictured through a metal advertising placard on April 19, 2010. More than 100 destinations from Athens were canceled due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which covered large parts of Europe for the past four days. Iceland’s Eyjafjoell volcano has started spewing out less ash, a sign the eruption could be tapering off and that Europe’s air traffic nightmare could be coming to an end, experts said today. AFP PHOTO / Aris Messinis
Smoke and ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano block daylight on a church on April 19, 2010 near Asolfssakali. Lava is shooting for the first time from Iceland’s erupting volcano and the ash cloud has dramatically reduced. European governments opened up the continent’s airspace to new flights from April 20 giving hope to hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world trapped by a cloud of volcanic ash crippling airlines. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / EMMANUEL DUNAND
An Indian potter arranges newly-made earthen pots for drying in Allahabad on April 13, 2010. The demand for earthenware pots is very high in summer when they are used to store cool water for drinking. TOPSHOTS/AFP PHOTO/Diptendu DUTTA
In this photograph taken on April 20, 2010, four month old Hawksbill turtles swim into the sea after a symbolic release by conservationists at the Thousand Islands National Marine Park in Pramuka island north of Jakarta. Hawksbill turtles, known by their scientific name Eretmochelys Imbricata, are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Hunted for their flesh, shell and eggs, plus destructive fishing methods have threatened the survival of the sea turtle. Indonesia’s conservation efforts include aiming to stop the illegal trade of Hawksbill turtle products and protect its natural nesting grounds. TOPSHOTS AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD
TOPSHOTS An injured demonstrator is manhandled by policemen following clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Jakarta on April 14, 2010. Bloody clashes broke out in Indonesia’s capital between scores of demonstrators and security forces over the demolition of a cemetery, witnesses and officials said. AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD
TOPSHOTS Kristanto, 10, covered with grease and dirt gathers scrap metal from a burnt bulldozer following the bloody clashes between security forces and religious followers of a revered 18th century Muslim scholar Habib Hasan bin Muhammad Al-Hadad in Jakarta’s international port district of Tanjung Priok on April 16, 2010. Authorities effort to enforce a demolition on the section of the memorial shrine triggered bloody clashes between security forces and followers. Three personel of the city’s public order force died in the riots while more than 100 people were also injured, many seriously while about 70 vehicles mostly from security forces were burned in the April 14 clashes between security forces and people protesting over plans to bulldoze part of the shrine. Police fired tear gas, pepper bullets and water cannon to disperse hundreds of men armed with machetes, swords and sticks who had massed to protect the sacred shrine which turned the area into a war zone. AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD
A plane goes through clouds as it takes off from Fiumicino airport near Rome on April 17, 2010. Airspace across northern Italy will remain closed until 0600 GMT on Sunday due to the expanding cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland, the Italian civil aviation authority ENAC said, while Rome airports are still working. TOPSHOTS/AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE
A Palestinian masked youth hurls a stone at Israeli soldiers during a protest in the village of Bilin, west of Ramallah, on April 16, 2010 against Israel’s controversial separation barrier. Israel says the network of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire is needed for security while the Palestinians view it as a land grab that undermines their promised state. TOPSHOTS/AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI
Palestinian beekeepers inspect hives at an apiary near the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Bureij on April 19, 2010. Jihad Abu Shamalah, the Gaza farmer who owns the apiary says he had to move his bee farm from the northern Gaza Strip after the Israeli army destroyed the area around it during its last majeure military offensive in January 2009. The apiary?s 450 hives produce some 4000 kilos of honey every year and it is sold only in the Gaza Strip. TOPSHOTS AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED
Lightning strikes past a hilltop Buddhist stupa in the outskirts of Kathmandu on April 13, 2010. The stupa is located in a Buddhist nunnery whose inhabitants practise Kung Fu every morning. TOPSHOTS/AFP PHOTO/Prakash MATHEMA
Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) jailguard secures the area where the court hearing about the Maguindanao massacre is taking place at Camp Bagong Diwa in suburb of Manila on April 21, 2010. Nine police officers and two members of the Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVO) pleaded not guilty to 57 counts of murder from the Maguindanao massacre on November 23, 2009. Angry relatives of 57 people killed in the Philippines’ worst political massacre say they fear the government is protecting a powerful Muslim clan accused of the murders. TOPSHOTS AFP PHOTO/NOEL CELIS
Students attend a mass in memory of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski in the Saint Anna church on April 12, 2010 in a tribute to victims of the air-crash in which President Lech Kaczynski was killed on April 10. Russia united with Poland in mourning President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other victims of a weekend plane crash, as authorities helped grieving Polish relatives identify loved ones. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / JOE KLAMAR
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak wipes his eyes as he delivers a speech about the sunken naval ship Cheonan at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on April 19, 2010. Lee promised a “resolute” response to a warship’s sinking last month, after North Korea broke weeks of silence to angrily deny involvement in the disaster. The letters on the background read “South Korea will remember you forever.” TOPSHOTS REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT AFP PHOTO/DONG-A ILBO
Two-year-old Dhoal’s bones show as he sits in his mother’s lap in a ward for children suffering from severe malnutririon at a local hospital in the southeast Sudanese town of Akobo on April 10, 2010. The population in Akobo and the surrounding counties in the Jonglei state in southern Sudan are suffering from the effects of a devastating drought and tribal conflict. Aid officials have called Akobo the “hungriest place on earth,” after a survey showed that 46 percent of children under five are malnourished. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Thai policemen (R) assist an injured person after a grenade bomb exploded outside a police station in Pattani province on April 21, 2010. A grenade attack and a car bomb in Thailand’s troubled south killed a policeman and injured dozens more police and civilians, officials said. Two men riding a motorcycle tossed a hand grenade towards 50 police officers as they received a morning briefing from their commander at the Pattani provincial police station, a spokesman said. TOPSHOTS AFP PHOTO / Tuwaedaniya Meringing
A model displays a make-up creation during the opening of IX International Festival of Hairdresser Art “Cristal Angel” in Kiev on April 14, 2010. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / SERGEI SUPINSKY
TOPSHOTS French President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) during the plenary session of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, 13 April 2010. The two-day 47-nation summit that will include a full schedule of talks on 13 April will be focused on strengthening existings measures or creating new ones to ensure countries adequately secure nuclear material. IAN LANGSDON/POOL
Members of the Venezuelan Army take part in a parade at Fort Tiuna, held as part of the celebrations of the Bicentenary of the Venezuelan independence, in Caracas on April 19, 2010. The march of military hardware and troops through the streets of Caracas marks the bicenntenial of the first steps towards independence from Spain, when on April 19, 1810 Venezuelan leaders moved to depose the colonial regime. TOPSHOTS / AFP PHOTO / Juan Barreto
